


A Little Comfort

by MommyMaleficent



Series: a Dragon, a Queen, and their little Princess [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Mommy Maleficent, Non-Sexual Age Play, Panic Attacks, Polyamory, Threesome - F/F/F, baby bottles, it’s mostly Dragon Swan, little Emma, mommy Regina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 07:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14563647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MommyMaleficent/pseuds/MommyMaleficent
Summary: Emma panics. Regina is damn near close to panicking.That’s where Maleficent comes in.





	A Little Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> This is rated T for just a bit of language (all said by Regina lol).
> 
> I hope everyone has a nice day <3

The scariest thing about it was it came out of nowhere.

“Emma?”

She stared at the hand which was casually on the table. It was shaking.

Her throat. She could feel it closing up like a ziplock bag, trapping the air she needed to breathe within it. Emma raised her other hand to touch her neck. Grasped at it. She needed to find a way to get it out.

Maybe it was the cheerios. One got stuck in her throat. No, it was the piece of toast Mommy gave her. No, it was...

No time to think.

She opened her mouth and tilted her head forward and tried to cough. Get it out. Stop choking. Stop dying.

Her cheeks grew hot. She couldn't see. She couldn't stand; her feet weren’t strong enough, and her chair disappeared and she fell. It felt like an eternity.

Stop crying.

The floor was cold, big, and empty. Like the sky. Like the surface of the ocean, and something dangerous was in the water pulling her under. She reached out for something—anything—to steady herself, and her shaking hands caught something quick. Something tall, round, solid, and she held onto it. Pulled herself to it, knees and all.

Between her heart pounding in her ears and threatening to burst from her chest, she could hear a wet, strangled sound. It was muffled, almost quiet, and it kind of hurt. But it was there. And there came that voice again.

“Emma—? Calm d—Damn. Fuck. _Fuck_!”

That hard, distant voice. It might've even been warm. Like dry ice.

Emma squeezed her eyes shut, but the tears still fell. She was still shaking. The ocean was expanding.

And the voice dulled to murmurs and replacing it came another voice, lighter, but still distant. And that wet, guttural noise.

She just wanted it all to stop.

* * *

“Wait!” Regina cried when Maleficent reached a hand to touch Emma’s shoulder, “You shouldn’t touch her; she could be overstimulated.” After a moment’s consideration, Maleficent conceded, much to Regina’s relief.

“You’re right.” She straightened herself and added calmly, “So don’t raise your voice, Regina.”

Regina clicked her tongue. She held her phone in her hands, thumbs furiously tapping letters whilst muttering, “Comeoncomeoncomeon...”

Maleficent sighed. She looked from one girlfriend who was two seconds away from dropping her phone in her haste, to the other who was desperately clutching onto a table leg, with strained sobs that sounded like feeble attempts at screaming, and who looked like she wasn’t going to come down from her panic without help. Help Regina was in no shape to give.

“Don’t tell her to calm down...” Regina mumbled, “Come on, what else?! Damn it!”

In fact, she was probably making it worse.

After several moments of watching her flounder, Maleficent sighed again, and knelt down to meet Emma’s level.

“Emma,” she said, quietly but firmly, “It’s Mal, and I promise you that you are going to be fine. I will help you through this episode of yours, but I need your permission to do that. Will you let me lead you, by your hand, to the bedroom?”

Emma responded with a sob, and a weak nod. Maleficent watched as she pried a hot, sticky palm from the table leg and began the process of offering it to her. Her movements were awkward, and jerking. Her hand looked so small, shaking so. Hell, Emma was small enough as it was.

Maleficent stood and helped Emma up slowly, letting her take charge of the pace, and once Emma was fully upright, if a little unsteady, she tightened her grip a little and turned toward the way she came. She let Emma set the pace for that too, and did her best to stay a consistent distance in respect to her space as they went up the stairs and down the hall.

By the time they got to the bedroom, Emma’s cries were closer to subsiding. She’d opened her eyes as the noises of downstairs became less and less, and her breathing went from fast and heavy to slower. but still heavy.

Maleficent shut the door and sat her youngest lover at the foot of the bed. She knelt before her and held her hands.

“I need you to breathe with me, dear,” Maleficent said, “In through the nose for two seconds, out through the mouth for two seconds. Can we try that?”

Emma nodded. Maleficent smiled.

“Good. I’m going to do it first, and you can follow when you’re ready. We will go very slowly. Ready?” Emma nodded. “In—1, 2—out—1, 2.” She paused for a second. “In—1, 2—out—1, 2.”

On the third go, Emma made an effort to join in. She squeezed Maleficent’s hands as she breathed, matching their intake of breath, holding, and exhaling. At the end of the fourth repeat, they increased the time to four, and after six breaths, six. By then, Emma’s tears were long gone, and she went from sitting above Maleficent to sitting in her lap while she leaned up against the bed.

“Rock,” Emma murmured, resting her cheek against Maleficent’s shoulder. Her eyes were closed, but her breathing was normal again. The shaking, though less intense than before, remained, but it, too, was passing away.

Maleficent obliged, rocking her little swan from side to side. It was the first coherent word she heard her say that entire morning, littleness aside.

Emma never got panic attacks when little. In fact, being little was one of the ways she came down from them, insofar as Maleficent understood. She tried to work it out as she summoned a bottle of warm milk to her hand, and broke out into a smile when Emma began to drink, loudly suckling on the nipple.

* * *

Emma let Maleficent hold her bottle as she drank. It surprised her how often she knew what to do, especially since this was the first such time anything like this had happened when she was in littlespace. She knew more than Mommy did, and Mommy knew everything.

“Who do you think taught your Mommy almost everything she knows?” Maleficent answered with a wink when she asked. She chuckled when Emma’s eyes grew wide. “Don’t look so surprised, dear, I said _almost_. Clearly I didn’t teach her everything, or I wouldn’t have had to step in.”

Emma pushed her bottle away and nuzzled Maleficent’s cheek with the tip of her nose. “Can I ask a question?” she whispered.

Maleficent smiled. “Ask what you please, little one. And then, after you finish your bottle, we’ll put you down for a nap, okay? I know how draining panic attacks can be.”

Emma nodded. A nap sounded like a good idea. Shifting slightly, she sat up properly, and wrapped her arms loosely around Maleficent’s neck. Mustering all her courage, she looked her straight in the eye and asked, in her clearest, bravest, most serious voice:

“Can I call you Mommy too?”

**Author's Note:**

> If you’d like me to continue with this dynamic, you can always send me a prompt! :D


End file.
